Kampala, Uganda -
 t the RIFPD-UNFPA Conference in New York, May 1999, during the Population Project
Partner Workshop, Jotham Musinguzi, RIFPD Country Chairman in Uganda, proposed an innovative solution for an extreme problem in Uganda.
The country has a 43% teen pregnancy rate, the highest in the world. And in a cruel twist
of consequence, pregnant teens are expelled from school. Infant mortality is 122 per 1,000, and maternal mortality is 15-20 per 1,000 in the project area.
Life expectancy is 48.9 years. Literacy rate is 56.6.  Only 26.6 have safe drinking water, and
only 1.5% have electricity for lighting. Because discussing sexuality with children is taboo, AIDS and STD's are epidemic. Many families
still believe in witchcraft, decreasing cure rates. This WCS project aims to:
- Provide adolescents with information and services to avoid and prevent early sexuality, STD's and HIV/AID,
- Provide services for women in the reproductive age group 15-49 years, for safe motherhood to reduce maternal mortality
- Provide children aged 0-5 years with immunization services.
Project management, monitoring and evaluation systems are provided by local Rotarians.
Even gasoline for the motorcycle to deliver the services has been budgeted.
Contributions from Rotarians together with a TRF Matching Grant funded this $20,000 project, which is certain to help this extreme condition.
Rotarian Musinguzi serves in the Office of Population of the government of Uganda, and
has been deeply involved in programs of the United Nations Population Fund. Jotham's
expertise in population project implementation is invaluable to Rotary in work of this sort. |
